VADODARA: Vadodara Municipal Corporation (VMC) that is eyeing a smart city status has three months remaining to put its best foot forward. The civic body is to prepare its smart city proposal (SCP) through consultants that were recently appointed by the Union government.

Jones Lang LaSalle Property Consultants India Private Ltd along with Townland Consultants Private Ltd and Tata Consulting Engineers Ltd will prepare the SCP for Vadodara. The consultants have already begun holding a series of meetings with officials of the civic body and other stake holders to prepare a detailed project report.

VMC officials said that the first major task on hand will be that of collating data on the 10 core infrastructure elements that include adequate water supply, assured electricity supply, sanitation including solid waste management, efficient urban mobility and public transport, affordable housing especially for the poor, robust IT connectivity and digitization, good governance especially e-governance and citizen participation, sustainable environment, safety and security of citizens and health and education.

VMC IT director Manish Bhatt said that a 56-point questionnaire that has to include details on the core elements was a key to the SCP. "The questionnaire has to be filled along with data in a prescribed format. The data will have to be collected and formatted as per the needs of the questionnaire. Everything we state there will have to be backed up with evidence," he said.

Since the core elements include those like power, policing, health and education that have involvement of agencies outside the civic body, nodal officers have been appointed in each of these departments like the city police, Madhya Gujarat Vij Company Ltd, government hospitals and others to coordinate efforts for preparation of the SCP. A meeting of top officials as well as representatives of other important institutions in the city was also called recently to discuss the smart city project. Bhatt said that a meeting of NGOs and prominent citizens would also be called in the coming days to take their inputs.